Pep Guardiola will be back on familiar ground with
Manchester City this season after they were placed in the same Champions League
group as Barcelona in another tough draw for the Premier League club. As well
as returning to the Camp Nou Guardiola will confront Borussia Mönchengladbach,
who were also in City’sChampions League group last season, and Celtic.
The draw was much kinder to the Premier League’s other
clubs, notably Leicester City, whose first Champions League campaign takes on
Porto, Club Brugge and Copenhagen in a group that will encourage their
supporters to believe they can reach the knockout stage.
Manchester City once again find themselves up against
difficult opponents. As well as the obvious threat posed by Barcelona, whom
City have faced in the Champions League in two of the past three seasons,
Mönchengladbach are no pushovers and taking on Celtic at Parkhead will be
tricky.
“It’s not a nightmare because we are in a wonderful
competition but you do have to say it’s a very tough draw with Barcelona,
Borussia Mönchengladbach and Celtic – a big game again,” Txiki Begiristain,
City’s director of football, said. “Pep knows the group very well – obviously
Barcelona but also Borussia Mönchengladbach from his time in Germany. We were
in the semi-final last season and we want to be there again.”
Leicester are not setting their targets so high but there
will be cautious optimism around the club after a draw that could have been a
lot worse for the Premier League champions. Porto have a strong European
pedigree, winning the European Cup in 1987 and 2004, but Leicester have nothing
to fear against Brugge or Copenhagen, the other teams making up Group G.
“Now the teams
have been drawn that excitement is building even more and, although it won’t be
easy against great champions like Porto, like everyone, I’m curious to see how
my players perform,” Claudio Ranieri said.
The Leicester manager added: “Once again I say we are
underdogs. For this reason we must fight for everything. I want to see my
players fight against the best in Europe. Last season was wonderful but I want
more. Now we are in the Champions League and we have another wonderful
opportunity to show our quality. We know we have three tough away games but,
when we arrive at our stadium, that is when I know we can show something
special.”
Arsenal, who have been eliminated at the last-16 stage in
each of the last six seasons, start at Parc des Princes, on 13 September, in
their toughest group game. Although Basel have beaten Manchester United and
Chelsea in the Champions League in the last five years, Arsenal will be strong
favourites to qualify along with PSG, with Ludogorets the rank outsiders in
Group A.
Spurs avoided being placed with one of the European
powerhouses. CSKA Moscow were arguably the weakest of the top seeds, and
Mauricio Pochettino, the Spurs manager, will be relieved to have avoided
Borussia Dortmund and Atlético Madrid from the second pot. Bayer Leverkusen,
who finished third in the Bundlesliga last season - albeit 28 points behind
Bayern Munich – and Monaco make up Group E.
Real Madrid, the holders, have been drawn with Borussia
Dortmund, Sporting Lisbon and Legia Warsaw.
Champions League draw in full
Group A: Paris Saint-Germain, Arsenal, Basel, Ludogorets
Group B: Benfica, Napoli, Dynamo Kyiv, Besiktas
Group C: Barcelona, Manchester City, Borussia
Mönchengladbach, Celtic
Group D: Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid, PSV Eindhoven,
FC Rostov
Group E: CSKA Moscow, Bayer Leverkusen, Tottenham
Hotspur, Monaco
Group F: Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Sporting Lisbon,
Legia Warsaw
Group G: Leicester, Porto, Club Brugge, FC Copenhagen
Group H: Juventus, Sevilla, Lyon, Dinamo Zagreb
-(Source: TheGuardian)
0 Comments
COMMENT
------------------
We love to hear from you, make use of the comment field after every post and drop your comments. Also tick the box in the comments area to get notified via your email for the replies on your comments. Thanks
DISCLAIMER:
*Comments on this Web are NOT posted by Tundegold.
*Readers are SOLELY responsible for the comments they post.
*Also, where necessary, all posts are duly referenced.Thank you.
COPYRIGHT WARNING!
We work really hard and put a lot of effort and resources into our content, providing our readers with plagiarism-free articles, original and high-quality texts.
Contents on this website may not be copied, republished, reproduced, redistributed either in whole or in part without due permission or acknowledgement. Proper acknowledgement include, but not limited to (a) Proper referencing in the case of usage in research, magazine, brochure, or academic purposes, (b)"FAIR USE" in the case of re-publication on online media.
About possible consequences you can read here:What are the consequences of copyright infringement?
Tundegold is a property of Grandunicorn Limited and we have all legal actions at our disposal to take within and outside the internet in effort to protect our intellectual properties. All contents are protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1996 (DMCA).